I’ve been a real estate agent for about three years now, and one of the things I’ve had trouble with is freely communicating what I do to people I meet. What I mean by that is that I am not an in-your-face kind of person. I prefer a softer approach. For example, I prefer sending letters to expireds rather than knocking on their doors. I will mention my real estate business to someone if it’s appropriate to the conversation (i.e., someone says something like, “I’m thinking of selling my home” and then I would of course volunteer my services). Or someone asks what I do, well then of course I will tell them. However, I don’t volunteer this information as often as I could and by not speaking up more often, I am losing opportunities to expand my sphere and increase my business.
I recently discovered that it’s perfectly fine, and in fact quite useful, to go ahead and bring up my business as much as possible, as long as I do it correctly.
Here’s what led me to realize it’s okay to talk about my business, even when not asked for the information. We were recently shopping for new furniture and when we were wrapping up the purchase, I commended the salesman on his sales style. We launched into a discussion on how the key is in listening and watching for cues on what your clients want. And I mentioned that there was some similarity to what I do, as I’m a real estate agent and when servicing clients, listening is key. Well, we then had quite a discussion since he is considering becoming an agent himself at some point. I left, we shook hands, and I was going to be providing additional business cards to him just in case he had customers who might be in need of an agent at some point.
But it doesn’t stop there. I received a call the following day from the same salesman. Evidently, his furniture store holds a quarterly networking event in their store where local business people set up tables and provide information on their services. I’ve been invited to participate in the next event. Could this lead to more business? Possibly, but if I hadn’t have mentioned what it is I do, I wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to find out.
So my key takeaway is that if I’m going to be truly successful, I need to talk about what I do. A lot more and to a lot more people.
Agents: Mention what you do to as many people as possible!